Technology | The Guardian

We spent a mind-bending amount of time just playing. It was like being an incredibly spoilt womanchild with a doll’s house

FBI says it is reviewing ‘digital footprint’ of Dahir Adan, who was shot dead after stabbing 10 people in a knife attack for which Isis later claimed creditThe FBI is trying to crack open another password-locked iPhone, this time belonging to Dahir Adan, the perpetrator of a knife attack on a Minnesota mall in which 10 people were stabbed.

The next six months are of crucial importance for the future of VR, if products such as Oculus Rift are to avoid being remembered as yesterday’s tomorrowAt an Oculus Connect event this week, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg announced a small change to the Oculus Rift, his company’s virtual reality headset, which will have massive repercussions for the technology over the next year of its life.It wasn’t the news that the company is working on a standalone VR headset, nor that it’s now selling in-ear headphones for $49 to go with your rift. Instead, its a small technique added to the Oculus development kit with the odd name of “asynchronous spacewarp”. Continue reading...

The company’s virtual reality wing will spend another $250m to develop new content, as CEO says the future of VR will be socialFacebook is to invest another $250m in developing content for virtual reality (VR) applications, founder Mark Zuckerberg announced at its Oculus Connect 3 developer conference in San Jose on Thursday.Facebook has already invested $250m in developing VR content, and said his goal was to quickly bring about his vision of the future connecting people all over the world through virtual experiences. Continue reading...

The less embarrassed you are, the better you tend to be at learning languages. The answer? ChatbotsChatbots suck. We all know it. If you want to get something done with a computer, it turns out, there are better ways to do it than laboriously type out conversational sentences to be read by a programme with a shaky grasp of the language and a gratingly affected sense of humour.So I’m as surprised as anyone that for the past week, I’ve started every morning with a 10 minute conversation with a chatbot. In French. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Friday. Continue reading...

The share sale of Snap Inc, which owns the popular picture and video-sharing app, would be largest on US stock exchange since 2014, if report proves trueSnap Inc, the company that owns picture- and video-sharing app Snapchat, is planning an initial public offering that could value the company at a minimum of $25bn, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.If the report proves true, the share sale would be the largest on a US stock exchange since 2014, when Chinese e-commerce service Alibaba was first listed at a value of $168bn. Continue reading...

Embattled founder Elizabeth Holmes once boasted her $9bn business would change the world, but Theranos’s decline is now a cautionary taleElizabeth Holmes, the embattled founder and chief executive of Theranos, said late on Wednesday that the company will close its clinical labs and Walgreens testing centers in the US.In an open letter posted on the company’s website, Holmes praised the consumer-facing business that she once boasted would change the world with its inexpensive pinprick blood test, and was once the toast of Silicon Valley. Continue reading...

A coherent single-player campaign and excellent online options bring this Xbox stalwart right back into the battleDepending on your outlook, the fourth title in this muscle-bound sci-fi series could easily look like an anachronism. It’s a single-path third-person cover-shooter that pays no heed to modern demands for open worlds, and belongs to a franchise that has looked somewhat jaded over the last few iterations. But Microsoft has cannily brought in a new developer, the Coalition, and it has administered a much-needed injection of fresh ideas, without compromising the core appeal.After a brief nostalgic prologue, Gears of War 4 takes place 25 years after the Locust were (apparently) finally defeated in Gears 3. The planet Sera has changed massively in that quarter-century; the COG have become the baddies, exercising fascistic control over the populace with the help of a robotic army known as DBs, even though the authoritarian female first minister (remind you of anyone?), Jinn, begins by paying lip-service to Marcus Fenix at a commemorative rally. You play as James “JD” Fenix, son of Marcus, who has gone Awol from the COG and hooked up with a bunch of “outsiders” living off-grid in a country village. Along with sidekick Del and Kait, the franchise’s first properly central female character, JD embarks on a raid of a COG establishment with the aim of stealing a Fabricator – essentially a 3D printer with knobs on, which can make weapons and fortifications. Continue reading...

Neither the tech company nor the government will say who greenlighted custom program to scan users’ emails, but secret Fisa court and FBI are possibilitiesBy what legal authority do the National Security Agency and the FBI ask Yahoo to search its users’ emails? Neither the government nor the tech company would say, after Reuters first reported on Tuesday that Yahoo “secretly built a custom software program” it used on behalf of the NSA and CIA to scan customer emails.Related: Yahoo 'secretly monitored emails on behalf of the US government' Continue reading...

Sony’s entry into the world of consumer virtual reality is an impressive start but it’s not yet the affordable high-end VR experience some are dreaming ofSince the phenomenally successful crowd-funding campaign for Oculus Rift in 2012, the idea of an affordable – and functional – virtual reality headset has obsessed the consumer technology industry. Afterwards, we saw video game publisher Valve partner with phone manufacturer HTC on the high-end Vive headset; we saw the smartphone-powered Gear VR and the budget priced Google Cardboard – and most recently the arrival of Daydream VR as a major element of Google’s own Pixel phone offering.And of course, the games industry has been watching too. In 2014, Sony announced Project Morpheus, the codename for its own PlayStation 4-compatible VR headset, promising an affordable high-end and easy-to-use solution. Now named PlayStation VR, that headset is ready to launch, with an impressive range of games and applications. But can it really cross the difficult divide between specialist geek toy and mass entertainment proposition? Continue reading...

We asked whether you’re still catch ‘em all crazy three months since the game’s release. Here’s what some of you said

A malicious advert pushed through the free tier of the music streaming site has opened ‘questionable’ pop-ups” for some usersSpotify has become the latest service to be hit by “malvertising”, after a malicious advert pushed through the free tier of the music streaming site started opening “questionable” website pop-ups for some users.The attack was reported by multiple users on social media throughout Wednesday morning. For most, it simply resulted in pop-up windows opening, but a few users reported attempted malware installations further down the chain. Continue reading...

Paul’s company wants to create professional-looking videos from drone camera footage. What are the options?We produce drone shoots of luxury properties, and I would like to edit the raw footage and add graphics in-house. Please can you suggest which software is the easiest to use and most intuitive to create professional videos on both Windows and Mac? Paul ColemanBad news I’m afraid. No serious video editing program is intuitive or easy to use, and the more power you need, the harder things get. Continue reading...

Electronics company beset by problems with its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone says it will carefully review restructuring proposalSamsung shares have risen to a record high after an activist investor proposed major restructuring.The suggestion of a corporate makeover came as Samsung continued to face problems with its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, following a global recall of 2.5m devices last month. Continue reading...

Ad agency creation attracts 65,000 followers after 150 posts – every one of which shows 25-year-old Parisian with alcoholLouise Delage was a 25-year-old Parisian social media star, who – judging from her public Instagram profile, just about the only trace of her online – liked spending time with friends, eating at restaurants and being outdoors.Her photos had simple captions (“Chilling with friends”, “Dancing”, sometimes just an emoji), were hashtagged to the limit of legibility, and received likes in the hundreds, even though Delage joined Instagram only on 1 August. She accumulated nearly 65,000 followers in a little over a month. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Thursday. Continue reading...

The national broadband network’s second satellite has been blasted into space after being delayed by bad weather. The 6.4 tonne satellite, named Sky Muster II, will be in geostationary orbit 36,000km above Australia and provide internet services for up to 400,000 premises in remote areas. A European Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched the satellite from the spaceport in French Guiana Continue reading...

Company has replaced 60% of handsets in South Korea and US after reports of devices catching fire, but new incident may indicate a much bigger problemSamsung’s disastrous Note 7 smartphone episode took a new turn today when one of its new replacement handsets started to smolder during a flight in the US on Wednesday.The South Korean company recalled 2.5m smartphones during September after several reports of the devices catching fire during or after charging, offering replacement units to customers. Last week claimed it had replaced 60% of handsets in South Korea and in the US. Continue reading...

The quick turnaround is the clearest sign yet that CEO Jack Dorsey is pushing to provide clarity to shareholders and employees over the company’s futureTwitter has told potential acquirers it is seeking to conclude negotiations about a sale by the time it reports third-quarter earnings on 27 October, according to people familiar with the matter.The timeline is hugely ambitious in the context of most mergers and acquisitions, given that Twitter began mulling a sale only last month. It is the clearest sign yet that CEO Jack Dorsey is pushing to provide clarity to shareholders and employees over the company’s future as quickly as possible. Continue reading...

Previous high-profile hacks by the secretive group include Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Pokémon Go’s serversBuzzFeed was hacked by OurMine on Wednesday in apparent retaliation for a story that claimed to unmask one of the members of the secretive group.On Tuesday, BuzzFeed posted a story claiming to have identified one of the members of the group as a Saudi teen called Ahmad Makki. In response, on Wednesday the hackers managed to breach BuzzFeed with a post, which has since been taken down, that read: Continue reading...

‘Technical issue’ leads to items appearing on site’s new Marketplace section that violate its policiesFacebook has apologised after guns, drugs and even baby hedgehogs were listed for sale on its new Marketplace section.Marketplace launched on Monday in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, and the social network said a technical issue meant items had appeared for sale that violated its policies. Continue reading...

It’s not the first time a member of the government has been caught playing the game in the chamber, but this time it was the prime minister herselfThe Norwegian prime minister has been caught playing Pokémon Go during a debate in Norway’s parliament.Erna Solberg was pictured playing the game during a debate in the Storting on Tuesday. It’s no secret Solberg is a big fan of Pokémon Go. During an official trip in Slovakia, she took some time out to play the game, telling reporters she was keen to hatch some of her 10km eggs. Continue reading...

Internet service provider handed fine by Information Commissioner’s Office after security failings allowed customer data to be accessed ‘with ease’TalkTalk has been hit with a record £400,000 fine for the security failings that led to the company being hacked in October 2015.The Information Commissioner’s Office levied the fine saying that the attack “could have been prevented if TalkTalk had taken basic steps to protect customers’ information”. Continue reading...

Search company unveils first own-brand phone with 12 megapixel cameras and unlimited photo storage, pitting it directly against Apple

Greg Taylor quits as principal government relations officer following complaint by Labour MP John Woodcock to policeAn official from London’s City Hall has resigned after being questioned by police over alleged Twitter trolling of MPs.Greg Taylor quit his post as principal government relations officer with immediate effect after he was interviewed under caution by Lancashire police and suspended from his job. Continue reading...

From community displacement in Mexico City to tourism-triggered evictions in Lisbon and crazy rent hikes in Silicon Valley, our readers shared stories of gentrification happening in their cities – and the initiatives trying to tackle it“Here gentrification happens very quickly. Every month some ‘nice’ restaurant or shop opens. The old name of my neighbourhood (Kinkerbuurt) was changed and rebranded to ‘Hallenkwartier’. I would enjoy many of the changes if I knew others could enjoy it as well. But poor people have to leave, social housing is sold off, and rich people and tourists move in. Continue reading...

After fighting long proxy war the two tech titans are now in same arena, as Google bets big on its new phone brand transferring to a market dominated by iPhoneGoogle has just launched a new smartphone, the Pixel, and for the first time this isn’t just another Android smartphone – it’s a Google phone. The company is finally launching a direct assault on its biggest rival: Apple.

Five years after his death, the Apple co-founder’s mythology still dominates online discussion, from management listicles to attempts to cash in on his nameIt was five years ago today that Steve Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple, died after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. His death, at 56, came a few months after stepping down from his role at the company, handing over the reins to Tim Cook, his collaborator and such a close longtime friend that he offered Jobs a portion of his liver.Since then, Apple’s value has grown from $50bn to more than $600bn, if down a little from its peak of $775bn in February 2015. Despite such enormous growth, it has been hard for Cook to step out of the shadow of the charismatic Apple co-founder. Continue reading...

With 200 pupils set to start training, the mood is high in the unlikely suburb chosen for tech giant’s latest ventureSan Giovanni a Teduccio, a downtrodden suburb of Naples, is a far cry from Silicon Valley.The crumbling apartment buildings, the walls covered in either graffiti or church death notices, and the ubiquitous clotheslines hung outside people’s windows do not leave the impression that the neighbourhood is a centre for high technology. Continue reading...

Company complied with a classified directive, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of NSA or FBI, say former employeesYahoo last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information at the request of US intelligence officials, according to a report.The company complied with a classified US government directive, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency (NSA) or FBI, two former employees and a third person who knew about the program told Reuters. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Wednesday. Continue reading...

The anonymous message board represents the darkest corners of the internet, but users aren’t ready to say goodbyeThe anonymous message-board site 4chan has come to represent the darkest corners of internet subculture, rife with the misogyny, web taste and the politically incorrect humor of the alt-right.Now it appears to be in financial trouble, according to the site’s new owner, Hiroyuki Nishimura, who said on Sunday that the site can no longer afford “infrastructure costs, network fee, servers cost and CDN [servers that help distribute high-bandwidth files such as video]”. Continue reading...

Study finds group using wearable fitness tracker did show improved levels of physical activity over a year – but not enough to improve health, say researchersWearable trackers may not increase activity levels enough to significantly benefit health, researchers have said.Pedometers are “unlikely to be a panacea for rising rates of chronic disease”, experts said after a new study concluded that the devices did not appear to improve the health outcomes of wearers after one year. Continue reading...

Until Tuesday, the Tesla boss didn’t follow any women on Twitter. The heads of Apple, Google, and Microsoft aren’t much betterConfusing the real world with the slice of reality reflected by one’s social media accounts is a mistake political reporters and partisans make every day. Algorithms and selection bias have conspired to drastically narrow the world wide web for must of us.But for many of the tech industry’s moguls, the world reflected in their Twitter timelines is bizarrely similar to the bizarre societies they have created in their companies: very, very male. Continue reading...

Stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has moved from the US government to an international group, but not everyone is happy about itAs of Saturday morning the internet – or at least the bit of it that manages the network’s “address book” – is no longer controlled by an American organization but by an international group.

As virtual reality moves into the mainstream, this is how the Guardian is using it to advance our journalism.This is the year that virtual reality (VR) is expected to move into the mainstream. New headsets backed by all the major tech players are coming to the market, encompassing everything from high end headsets with laser tracking to cardboard. Now more people than ever can have a go for themselves and experience a multitude of different worlds.The launch of Daydream, Google’s platform for high quality mobile VR, is another milestone for virtual reality. As these technologies move forward they bring with them more potential for journalism and storytelling.

Google launches iPhone rival emphasising Google Assistant as well as Daydream VR, Home smart speaker and more at live event

Search company unveils revamped voice assistant AI and launches Home, a rival to Amazon’s Echo smart speaker hub

The decision to include the 3D-printed parts in the two new devices was a purely economic one, says HPHalf the custom parts in HP’s first 3D printer in over a decade were themselves 3D printed, according to the company’s head of 3D printing, Stephen Nigro.The decision to include the 3D-printed parts in the two new devices, which will start shipping by the end of this year, helps the company highlight the quality of the printers’ output, but Nigro insists that the decision was a purely economic one. Continue reading...

Facebook wants the world to know it’s serious about hardware, but just how much is it willing to reveal?It’s an uncharacteristically gloomy day at Building 17 of Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters. From the outside, it looks like any other office; it’s unremarkable except for the free valet parking booth erected in front of the lobby, a perk that saves staff from having to walk more than a few steps from their cars.

Evidence shows reviewers awarded higher star ratings to products that were discounted in exchange for a reviewAmazon has banned “incentivised reviews” after evidence suggested writers typically awarded almost half a star extra compared with reviews where the reviewer paid for the product themselves.Incentivised reviews involved companies giving big discounts to reviewers on products, although the reviews were still meant to be impartial. Amazon operates its own incentivised reviews programme, Vine, which will continue. Continue reading...

From Witcher 3’s unicorn seduction to Heavy Rain’s polygonal sex crash, games writers Holly Nielsen and Kate Gray go on an erotic odyssey like no otherThis article contains sexual references, including but not limited to: interspecies sex, taxidermilogical sex, extraterrestrial sex and post-coital human sacrificeThere has always been sex in video games. As shocking as this revelation may be to those who have only ever played Call of Duty, Fifa or Pokémon Go, it’s the truth. Continue reading...

One week after Amazon launched Echo in the UK, the search company is also pitching for a smart home future with its own voice recognition deviceTalking to computers was once for the likes of Captain Kirk, but a new product due to be announced by Google on Tuesday demonstrates that it believes devices that can speak to humans are ready for the living room.The search engine giant is expected to launch its Google Home “personal assistant” speaker system – a squat cylinder that will be able to process search requests and other everyday tasks when instructed to by the sound of a human voice. Continue reading...

The place to talk about games and other things that matterIt’s Tuesday. Continue reading...

Palm-sized Kirobo Mini ‘wobbles a bit’, blinks and speaks with high-pitched voice in order to ‘invoke an emotional connection’A baby robot designed to “invoke an emotional connection” has been unveiled in Japan, where plummeting birth rates have left many couples without children.The Kirobo Mini was created by Toyota’s non-automotive department and is equiped with artificial intelligence and a camera so it can recognise the face of the person speaking to it and respond. Continue reading...

Marketplace lets Facebook users list items for sale, and could be an attempt to upend the crowded world of peer-to-peer sellingFacebook’s latest product launch appears to be a modest step into a classified advertising market currently fought over by eBay, Craigslist and more nascent startups such as LetGo and OfferUp – the latter recently valued at $1.2bn.Related: A tough sell: why Facebook's e-commerce dream failed to take flight Continue reading...

Twitter UK’s 163 staff get £12.5m in shares as company reports revenues of £76m last year, but analysts say figure is much higherTwitter’s British operation paid £1.24m in tax last year as staff enjoyed a £12.5m shares windfall.The US technology company, which is the subject of rumours of a potential acquisition by Google, Disney or computing company SalesForce reported a rise in UK revenues of 30.5% to £76m in 2015, well short of the £135.7m that it made in Britain, according to estimates from analysts at eMarketer. Continue reading...

Google’s own-brand phone revealed in promotional images by Carphone Warehouse before official unveiling on TuesdayGoogle’s new own-brand Pixel smartphones have been revealed a day before their official unveiling after Carphone Warehouse leaked promotional content.The new Pixel phone by Google marks a step-change for the Android-maker, putting the Google brand front and centre in an obvious direct challenge to Apple and its iPhone. Both Apple, and now Google, have the advantage of being able to develop both hardware and software simultaneously.

According to a new report, week-on-week sales of Xbox One were up 1000% at the end of September. How has the tide turned so dramatically for the console?Last week saw some interesting console news from games industry publication MCV. According to the website, UK sales of Xbox One rose by almost 1,000% in the week ending 24 September, while sales of the slimline PS4 have been comparatively slow.Data obtained from GfK, the market research company that compiles software sales charts in the UK, also showed that Microsoft’s machine had a 71% share of the hardware market for that week. The findings follow news in the US that the Xbox One has been the bestselling console for two months according to NPD Group data. Continue reading...